The invention pertains to a device for adjusting a cover of an automobile sunroof.
Sunroofs of this type contain at least one cover part for selectively closing and at least partially opening an opening in a rigid roof surface of an automobile, wherein said cover part can be tilted and slid. At least one cover carrying element is connected to the cover part and can be tilted about a first cam pin that extends transverse to the sliding direction of the cover part, wherein said cover carrying element can also be slid along the sliding direction in the tilted position. Guide rails are provided near the edges of the opening in the roof of the automobile in order to realize said sliding, wherein a transport carriage can be slid along said guide rails. In addition, adjustment means are provided for tilting the cover part in such a way that the transport carriage and the cover part carry out a movement relative to one another along the sliding direction. If the cover part of such sunroofs is slid above the roof surface of the automobile, they are generally referred to as xe2x80x9cspoiler roofs.xe2x80x9d
In such spoiler roofs, it is problematic that the same transport carriage is used for realizing the tilting as well as the sliding of the cover part in that the sliding is usually not desired during the tilting process. Consequently, a so-called switching process is required such that when opening the cover part at the end of the tilting phase, the cover part which is initially held and prevented from sliding can be suitably slid toward the rear in the tilted position during the additional sliding of the transport carriage. This process takes place in the corresponding, reverse sequence when the sunroof is closed.
In one known spoiler roof (DE-C2 3,311,452) that was introduced on the market quite some time ago, the cover part is rigidly connected to a cover carrier that can be tilted and slid along a guide rail. In this case, the cover carrier represents a self-contained component that can be slid in the same guide rail as the transport carriage, wherein the tilting axis of said cover carrier is positioned a significant distance in front of the transport carriage (as seen from the forward direction of the automobile). Consequently, the slidable assembly unavoidably has a significant length that limits the maximum degree of opening the cover part. This problem is particularly evident in spoiler roofs of this type, particularly when they are retrofitted into automobiles. In this case, an opening lever is connected to the transport carriage via a cam arrangement and to the cover carrier or the cover part via a turning knuckle in tilted/ articulated fashion. The cam arrangement allows relative movement between the opening lever and the transport carriages. In order to ensure that the cover part is not slid during the upward tilting movement while the transport carriage carries out its initial adjusting movement, the opening lever contains a locking cam that, as the tilting angle of the opening lever increases, continuously moves out of a catch opening in the guide rail, which is stationarily fixed to the frame and into the guide rail, until the locking cam is entirely located in the guide rail and can be slid therein. This means that all moving sequences must be coordinated in such a way that the cam arrangement between the transport carriage and the opening lever has reached the position in which the sliding of the cover part was started at exactly the instant in which the locking cam is completely moved into the guide rail. This switching process is associated with a certain jolt because the guide rail of the cam arrangement which initiates the switching process and starts the sliding process must have a significant inclination of approximately 40xc2x0 so as to not transmit excessively high clamping forces upon the various cams during the subsequent forward sliding of the tilted cover.
During the forward sliding of the tilted cover part, one encounters the problem that the locking cams are guided in the same guide rail as the tilting cam of the cover carrier and the transport I C,. carriage, and that the locking cam must prevent a backward tilting of the cover part into the closed position during this sliding phase of the cover part. Consequently, the friction, to which the locking cam is subjected in the guide rail, increases in proportion to the flatness of the guide rail of the cam arrangement which causes the aforementioned switching processes. This is the reason a compromise had to be found between the intensity of the jolt and the intensity of the friction.
The previously described problems were significantly reduced when a spoiler roof (DE-C2 4,405,583) was introduced to the market at a later time. In this adjusting device, a toggle lever arrangement without guide curves is used instead of a cam arrangement consisting of a guide curve and cams. In this case, only one component that can be slid in a guide rail fixed to the frame is provided. This component accommodates the transport carriage as well as the cover carrier and makes it possible for both of these components to move relative to one another. A locking pin assigned to the roof carrier serves for locking the cover carrier to the rigid roof frame of the automobile during the tilting phase of the cover part. This locking pin cooperates with an opening in the guide rail that is rigidly connected to the automobile. In this known adjusting device, the length of the movable assembly was reduced in comparison to previously known arrangements, and the friction during the forward and backward sliding is, significantly reduced in particular. In addition, the jolt occurring during the switching process was practically eliminated due to the elimination of the cam arrangement between the opening lever and the transport carriage. However, this adjusting device still has the disadvantage of a relatively complex design and, specifically, a large number of components, the assembly of which is correspondingly complicated.
A significant reduction in the required components was achieved with the adjusting device according to WO 94/25301 which was introduced to the market at a later time. In this case, only a cover carrier, a transport carriage and a guide rail are required. Even the locking of the cover part in the closed position within the rear region of the cover part can be achieved with the previously described components. This is essentially achieved due to the fact that the pins for tilting the cover carrier are always guided in guide curves that intersect, wherein one guide curve is rigidly arranged on the automobile and the other guide curve is arranged in the transport carriage. This also makes it possible to eliminate locking elements for holding the cover carrier during the tilting phase. The basic principle of guide curves that intersect one another and serve for simultaneously accommodating the tilting axes for a cover carrier is also known from Japanese Patent No. 1-54 208. In both of these adjusting devices for spoiler roofs, the simplicity of which can scarcely be additionally improved, a noticeable jolt during the transition from the tilting phase to the sliding phase of the cover part cannot be eliminated.
In a device for adjusting spoiler roofs of the initially mentioned type, the invention is based on the objective of minimizing the resistance, i.e. the friction during the transition from the tilting phase to the sliding phase or from the sliding phase to the tilting phase of the cover part despite the relatively short length of the transport carriage and a minimization of the required components.
This objective is attained with an adjusting device, wherein at least one engagement means for separately engaging at least one transport carriage and the adjusting means, e.g., a cover carrier, is provided in order to tilt the cover part. In this case, the guide element for the carriage element (transport carriage) is provided with at least one control means, such that the carriage element and the adjusting element are effectively engaged in the sliding direction, i.e., they are unable to carry out relative movements when the carriage element is slid between positions, between which the cover part is merely slid along the sliding direction in the tilted position. When the carriage element is slid between positions when the cover part is essentially aligned with the roof opening and merely tilted, the carriage element and the adjusting element are not engaged, i.e., they are able to carry out relative movements in the sliding direction.
In contrast to the state of the art according to DE-C2 3,311,452 or DE-C2 4,405,583, the cover carrier is no longer engaged to the guide element, i.e., the guide rail that is rigidly fixed to the roof, by means of a separate engagement arrangement, but the separate engagement element acts between the cover carrier or, in general, the adjusting means of the roof part and the carriage element, i.e., the transport carriage.
Thus, the typical jolt that occurs during the transition from the tilting phase into the subsequent sliding phase of the cover part is eliminated. This is attained due to the fact that the cover part is not disengaged from an initially engaged position by the engagement means at the end of the tilting of the cover part because the engagement means according to the invention is already in the disengaged position during the tilting phase and consequently does not fulfill the function of holding the cover part with respect to the sliding direction during the tilting phase.
In the simplest instance, the engagement means according to the invention only fulfills the function of a driver between the carriage and the adjusting means of the cover part when sliding the cover part into the closing direction. Thus, frictional resistance as described previously with reference to DE-C2 3,311,452 is reliably prevented. Frictional resistance as it occurs with the intersecting guide curves according to WO 94/25301 can also be prevented with the engagement means according to the invention because any constraints due to intersecting guide curves are practically eliminated during this moving phase as well as during the transition from the sliding phase into the tilting phase or from the tilting phase into the sliding phase.
Due to the very simple means according to the invention, excellent advantages can be realized. These advantages are described in detail below with reference to various embodiments.
Additional characteristics that pertain in particular to the various options of designing the engagement means as well as transitions between the tilting phase and the sliding phase or the sliding phase and the tilting phase which are subject to particularly unnoticeable jolts are disclosed.
The aforementioned components as well as the components claimed and described in the embodiments and the components to be utilized in accordance with the invention are not subject to any particular restrictions regarding their size, shape, material selection and technical concept, i.e., the selection criteria known in the respective field of application can be applied in unlimited fashion. Additional details, characteristics and advantages of the invention result from the following description of the corresponding figures which show embodiment examples of the adjusting device.